By Marcus Uhe
It had been a long time coming, but two-day cricket finally made a long-awaited return to the DDCA’s Turf 1, 2 and 3 competitions over the weekend… kind of.
For various reasons, such as the pandemic and the intrusion of winter weather wreaking havoc with fixtures, it had been a steady diet of 45-overs a side, white balls and coloured clothing for DDCA sides in one-day cricket since the curtailed 2019/20 season, in which Berwick, Dingley and Parkfield were crowned Premiers in Turf 1, 2 and 3, respectively.
While Dingley and Parkfield were both able to win their respective deciders, the Turf 1 crescendo between the Bears and Buckley Ridges was abandoned as Covid-19 took hold across the world.
Back then, Donald Trump was still President of the United States, smoke turned blue skies to black and red as the horrendous Black Summer bushfires ravaged Gippsland and the Australian east coast as then-Prime Minister Scott Morrison soaked in some Hawaiian sun, while handshakes were being replaced with bizarre elbows bumps and the availability of toilet paper was turning supermarket aisles into wrestling rings.
To celebrate the homecoming, let’s look back on the DDCA Turf 1 landscape from those turbulent times.
SATURDAY 14 and 21 DECEMBER 2019 – ROUND 7
*Round 13’s fixtures that season were scheduled to be played over two days, however rain reduced the contests to one-day affairs
Springvale South solidified its place at the top of the table with a four-wicket outright win over the bottom-placed North Dandenong in a one-sided affair.
Batting first at Alex Nelson Reserve, the Maroons could only offer 136.
Syed Mehmood top scored with a fighting 53 off 56 balls but the next highest score, from Syed Akbar Shah, was just 29.
Bloods legend Nathan King did the damage with the ball, taking 5/30 to run through the Maroons’ middle order.
Springvale South declared six wickets down on 189 for a 53-run lead, skipper Ateeq Javid’s sensational year with the bat continuing with a sturdy 63.
North Dandenong’s top order failed to fire once again, falling to 4/51 after losing 3/16.
Martin Sultani’s 40 and Clayton McCartney’s 43 were the only contributions of note from the Maroons’ batters, with five of the top seven scoring in single figures.
With just 104 to chase, the Bloods lost six wickets but reached the total in the 26th over.
Javid steered the chase to safe waters with an unbeaten 39.
At Arch Brown Reserve, a wicked bowling performance from the Bears set the stage for an outright win over St Mary’s.
Sending the Saints in on the first day, James Wilcock produced stunning figures of 5/14 with six maidens from his 11 overs to send the visitors on their way for just 56 runs.
Lewis Palmer and Cameron Roberts both top scored with lowly scores of 12, with Roberts forced to retire hurt.
A period of 5/7 in the middle of the innings was catastrophic for the Saints, as Cory Bevan and Jarrod Goodes bagged two each to go with Wilcock’s haul of five.
The Saints were up for the fight, however, reducing the Bears to 8/90 before the home side declared with the first-innings points secured.
Josh Holden made a run-a-ball 32 with seven boundaries but was one of just three players to reach double figures.
Corey Ely was tight for the Saints, conceding just 16 runs from his nine overs to go with his three wickets, as Berwick took a 34-run lead into the second half of the contest.
The Saints’ second innings begun much like the first before a middle order rearguard helped push the Saints to 172.
Wilcock had opening pair Wendyl Pires and Palmer both back in the sheds after five overs as the visitors slipped to 3/21.
But Rhys Serpachy (32) and Robert Peat (64) made the two highest individual scores of the match to date, soaking up valuable time at the crease in doing so.
Peat hit seven fours and four sixes in his 64, meaning 52 of his runs came in 11 of the 135 deliveries he faced.
Dismissed after 67 overs, the Bears needed 139 runs to claim the outright results on a pitch that had proved difficult to make inroads on.
That didn’t seem to worry Matt Chasemore, however, making 70 off 60 to guide his side one.
The legend that is ‘Cheeks’ added 117 with Lachlan Brown for the second wicket as the Bears reached the total in the 25th over with eight wickets in hand.
How often do you see a team lose outright despite making the highest team score of the match? Probably not too often. But such were the bizarre times, St Mary’s will rue such a poor first innings.
Buckley Ridges’ trip to Reedy Reserve netted them an important win over Heinz Southern Districts in the context of a tight top five on the Turf 1 table.
HSD sat fifth coming into the contest and Buckley Ridges second, but were separated by just six points at the time.
Buckley’s decision to bowl first was quickly vindicated thanks to Jerome Jones, who reduced the hosts to 2/6 early.
HSD skipper Kaushayla Weeraratne and Udara Hettige came together with a critical 81-run stand, but the captain’s departure had dire consequences for the remainder of the innings.
From 2/87, HSD’s remaining eight wickets fell for just 23 runs, with former Wookey Medal winner and future (current) Buck Michael Davies departing for just two as the home side posted just 110.
Jones finished with 4/22 from his 16 overs with eight maidens, while spinner Matthew Goodwright was the most destructive with 5/19.
Whatever difficulty in staying at the crease HSD faced, Buckley appeared unfettered.
David White fell one run shy of a ton as the visitors posted 8/234 in 52 overs.
Jones added to his four-wicket haul in the first innings with 45 not out in what was becoming an excellent all-round performance.
Justin Davis led the way with the ball for the hosts, taking 4/57, as the visitors finished the first innings with a 124-run lead.
HSD’s second innings never got going, with the Jones and Goodwright duo doing the damage once again.
Each took three as HSD limped to 7/95, spared the humiliation of an innings victory by just a handful of wickets.
The best individual performance of the week, however, came from Narre South all-rounder Morteza Ali.
In one of his starring displays on his way to capturing the season’s Wookey medal as the competition’s best player, Ali top scored for the match and bagged a five-wicket haul as the Lions defended 223 at home against Hallam Kalora Park.
His 64 came off 104 deliveries and included eight fours and a six to help lay a platform for the first innings total.
Jersey international Jonty Jenner added a boundary-laden 46 and captain Scott Phillips raised his bat for 54 off 103, while current Lions coach Matthew Brooks made 20.
His wicket precipitated a collapse late in the innings, however, as the tail failed to fire, with the final five wickets falling for just 21 runs.
Tweaker Sachith Jayasinghe sent down 31 overs and was rewarded with 4/84 as the leading bowler in the Hawks’ lineup.
Hallam Kalora Park was able to string two decent stands of 52 and 54 together but lost too many wickets in clumps.
Phillips bagged both openers in Ben Hillard and Adam Warfe as the Hawks made a slow pursuit of the total.
The 44th over was where the game turned, when Tim Phillips grabbed the huge wickets of Jayasinghe and Dulag Ranathunga in the space of four balls to have the visitors stumbling at 5/108.
Jayasinghe made 48 before he edged behind to Joe Thomas, before Ranathunga hit Phillips a return catch that he snaffled.
Steven Gilmour and Leigh Booth had the second significant partnership of the innings but when Gilmour (56) became Ali’s second scalp, the innings fell away quickly.
Much like the Lions, the final five wickets fell for 19 runs in the space of eight overs, only the Hawks’ collapse begun with much more work to do.
Ali ran through the lower order to finish with 5/58.
SCORES
Springvale South (6dec/189 and 6/107) def North Dandenong (136 and 157) by four wickets.
Berwick (8dec/90 and 2/139) def St Mary’s (56 and 172) by eight wickets.
Buckley Ridges (8dec/234) def Heinz Southern Districts (110 and 7/95) by two wickets.
Narre South (223) def Hallam Kalora Park (179) by 44 runs.
